'Eerily quiet' as ban on gay youths ends

Majority of Vermont Boy Scouts volunteers support policy change that went into effect Jan. 1

Jan. 28, 2014

Edward Spaulding of Waitsfield has many fond memories scouting, right up to when he completed his Eagle Scout badge. Spaulding said he withdrew much of his support when the issue of banning gay youth and adults came to a head last year. / RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS

Written by

Elizabeth Murray

Free Press Staff Writer

Becoming a Tiger Cub was one of the first decisions Edward Spaulding of Waitsfield said he ever made for himself.

After seeing a commercial on television for the Boy Scouts of America, Spaulding asked his mother to enroll him in the ranks right away. Spaulding rose up through the ranks during his youth in Massachusetts, completing the Boy Scouts program and eventually becoming an Eagle Scout.

Spaulding brought this same spirit for scouting and love of the outdoors when he moved to Vermont, volunteering for Boy Scout troops as a leader in Waitsfield and Jericho, and beginning his own non-profit outdoor adventure company, the Northand Adventure Education and Therapy Center in Waitsfield.

However, when the issue of keeping openly gay youth and adult leaders out of the Boy Scouts of America came to a head last year, Spaulding said he withdrew much of his support from the program.

“I was pretty upset about it because growing up in high school, I had gay friends,” Spaulding said. “They were no different from you or I or anyone else. They just had a different sexual orientation, but it never negatively impacted my life.”

The Boy Scouts of America voted in May 2012 to allow gay youths to join, but still kept the ban on gay adult leaders. This new policy took effect on Jan. 1.

Despite all the criticism the Boy Scouts received during and after the vote, Ed McCollin, Scout executive in the Green Mountain Council, said things have been “eerily quiet” since the new year. Only a few families have withdrawn their boys from scouting troops in Vermont as a result.

The majority of Boy Scout participants in the state were in favor of the policy change, McCollin said.

Also, though chartering organizations for troops across the country — many of which are churches — withdrew their support after the vote, McCollin said no chartering organizations in Vermont followed suit. McCollin said the Green Mountain Council left the decision up to these individual churches and dioceses.

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“We haven’t lost anybody, and we’re really excited about that,” he said.

The national vote

McCollin recalled traveling with three others from the Green Mountain Council to the Boy Scouts of America’s annual meeting in Grapevine, Texas, last May. Before going, however, McCollin said the council had sent a survey to troops around the state to gauge opinions on the possible policy change.

In the end, three-quarters of the surveys that came back were in favor of change, according to McCollin. McCollin said he and the other volunteers decided to reflect that majority in their votes at the national council.

About 1,400 volunteers from across the nation voted on the proposal.

“It was very passionate because this has divided the Boy Scouts, it’s divided churches, and it’s divided communities,” McCollin said. “Right or wrong, people feel very strongly about it on both sides of the fence.”

McCollin said the historic vote was very close in the end — about 60 percent to 40 percent in favor of the policy change.

“That was it,” McCollin said. “We got up, and we walked back out and said, ‘Ok, that’s the vote. That’s what it is. Let’s go back and do our jobs,’ because, what are you going to do?”

Though the volunteers from Vermont voted in favor of allowing gay youths to join the Boy Scouts, McCollin would not say whether he personally was in favor of the change. However, McCollin said sexual conduct and sexual orientation will continue to be absent as an agenda item for the Boy Scouts so it will not distract from the goals of the program.

“We do need to continue to move forward and promote the fact that scouting is an organization that teaches young people character development, citizen responsibility and personal fitness,” McCollin said. “There’s a lot of other things, I think, that keep families from joining the Boy Scouts other than this issue. I sure hope we grow, because it’s been a tough few years.”

"Why allow one but not the other?"

As discussions on the policy change plagued Boy Scout troops nationwide, Carolyn Knight, whose son Andrew is in Bristol Troop 543, and another parent asked the rest of the troop to rise up in support of the policy change.

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“We seemed to kind of be the only two who were willing to go down that route,” Knight said. “It was something we kind of wanted to do, but there wasn’t a whole lot of people who kind of wanted to come forward.”

Knight said many of the troop parents felt they possessed little power to cause any change in the Boy Scouts policy since the change was being made at the national level.

“I feel a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t pursue it more,” Knight said. “I guess I just didn’t know where to go or where to take it.”

Knight is pleased with the change, but said she does not understand why the Boy Scouts would allow gay youths to join, but not gay adults. Knight said if her two sons were gay, she would hope there would be a gay role model for them.

“Who else is going to understand a young gay male than a guy who was a young gay male himself?” Knight said. “Those Boy Scout ages — young teenage years, middle school years — those are hard, confusing years for some men. I’m sure Boy Scouting was a very formative time and maybe they found a mentor in their leader, whereas some dads aren’t available or work or are overseas.”

Kim Fountain, executive director at RU12, a Burlington-based community center for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and questioning/queer Vermonters, said she is worried about the message this policy sends to youths who will not be able to continue their involvement with the Boy Scouts past their youth years.

“While I applaud the scouts for a step in the right direction, they still have a few more steps to take,” Fountain said. “I just think it’s unfortunate that they would do such fantastic work in getting their membership to the place where this is a good idea, and then just not carry it to what I think its logical solution.”

Bristol Troop 543 scout parent Deborah Dickerson said she has never seen sexual orientation as being an issue for youth or adults in her sons’ Boy Scouts troop. Dickerson’s three sons have all participated in the Boy Scouts, the two older sons garnering an Eagle Scouts rank. Dickerson has been on the Bristol Troop’s committee since 2007.

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Though Dickerson said she has no opinion on whether or not gay adults should be allowed to join as scout leaders and mentors, she said all the adult leaders have to go through training in safety policies and a background check to participate in the first place.

According to policy, a parent can never be alone with a Boy Scout, Dickerson said — there always has to be two adults with the scout or more than one scout with the adult.

After asking her son Peter, a junior in high school, what he thought about the change, Peter said he had no opinion.

“I think that’s interesting because I think for a lot of boys, it’s not really an issue,” Dickerson said. “They are sometimes perplexed about what’s all the hullabaloo about.”

Dickerson said she is happy the policy changed the way it did, however.

“I don’t think it’s right to exclude boys who can benefit from the scouting program,” Dickerson said. “In middle school and high school, I think that cultivating a love of the outdoors and leadership skills is great for all boys regardless of their religious belief or their sexuality. I think that’s all part of a culture of respect.”

Will more change follow?

Dickerson said she is confident the policy will continue to change, though she thinks change will be slow.

“Allowing the boys in is kind of testing the waters and seeing how that goes,” Dickerson said.

Spaulding said he thinks the hesitation is due to both fears about a sex scandal occurring between an adult and a child and fear of losing funding from charter organizations.

He said he thinks the policy change was ultimately made out of fear of losing support of large donors.

“I think it’s a half-measure,” Spaulding said. “It’s to placate the people that no longer support scouting.”

Spaulding said he thinks change will occur when the current leaders step down.

“I’m waiting for the day... for a new leadership to take over and breathe new life into the organization,” Spaulding said.

Dickerson said she is confident that the current safety policies will keep scouts safe from any type of danger.

“There’s enough safety guidelines in place that boys should never be in danger of being sexually abused, and that’s by a male or a female,” Dickerson said.

In the end, McCollin, the Green Mountain Council’s Scout executive, said the council will not stray from its goal of helping young men develop leadership skills and a love of the outdoors.

“We just want to stay steadfast in our mission and not let this issue or any other litigal or social issue be a distraction to what we’re trying to do,” McCollin said. “They do pop up. This has been the big one for a while, but we’re going to try to move forward.”